New Florida Facility Takes On Mental Illness Among Incarcerated

Miami-Dade County in Florida spends $232 million annually to warehouse 2,400 people with mental illnesses, making the county jail the largest psychiatric institution in Florida. It has as many beds for people with mental illnesses as all state civil and forensic mental health treatment facilities combined. The purpose of the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery is to act as a diversion and treatment program to address critical needs that have gone unmet, reduce the recidivism rate and save millions of tax dollars.

When its doors open in about six months, it will offer treatment and work to rehabilitate people with serious mental illnesses who are caught in the criminal justice system. The new facility is to provide 208 beds, an indoor basketball gym, a library, vocational rehabilitation, educational services, and a culinary jobs training program. The center is partnering with Workforce Florida and Miami Dade College to identify additional employment opportunities so individuals can become self-sufficient.

"At the time when we started planning for the project (in 2007), there were about 118,000 arrests per year in Dade County. There were about 7,400 people in jail. We were over capacity in the jail. It was a nightmare. The federal government was coming into investigate because it was so bad," said Judge Steve Leifman with the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida. 

That federal investigation focused on the ninth floor of the Miami-Dade County Jail, known as "The Forgotten Floor."  Justin Volpe, who was incarcerated on the ninth floor, was interviewed by CBS Miami at the time of the investigation. "I got arrested as a result of having a serious mental health issue which I was unaware of at the time. I knew my life was out of control, but I didn't know what other factors were helping to make this scenario worse. In jail, I was put on the ninth floor. The forgotten floor which we referred to it and it was just insane, it was insane up there. I knew I wasn't well, but the conditions were terrible. People being abused all the time, people screaming around the clock, the only place to lay was in a pile of feces, vomit and urine," said Volpe.

As a result of those deplorable conditions, the federal government sued the county government. As part of the settlement, Miami-Dade County closed the 9th floor and those who were incarcerated were moved to a new facility. It was a temporary fix for those who were mentally ill but served as the starting point for the effort that would culminate in the creation of the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery.

The facility will offer transitional housing, outpatient behavioral health and primary care. There will also be vocational rehabilitation and employment services and a courtroom and a space for legal and social service agencies. Services will focus on serving people who are the highest utilizers of the criminal justice system and mental health services in Miami-Dade County.

Leifman says Miami-Dade County jail spends $636,000 per day, or $232 million per year, to house an average daily population of 2,400 people with mental illnesses. By contrast, the state spends just $47.3 million annually to provide community-based mental health services to about 34,000 people in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. To put it another way, $100,000 annually in taxpayer dollars are spent for each person with a mental illness in jail compared to $1400 for each person who manages to access care in the community.

"The illnesses are complex, but the solutions are not. We just have not offered them. It's about relationships. It's about helping people reconnect and once you are able to do that, it really helps them in their own recovery," said Judge Leifman. “We believe that this facility will help us eliminate our homeless situation as close as we will ever be able to do. It will substantially reduce the jail population of people with mental illnesses so we can save the county and taxpayers millions of dollars.”

You can read more about the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, which will serve as a model for rehabilitation carceral facilities of this type throughout the nation, at their website.